I've had my eye on Spiga for a while — even though it is hard to keep an eye on a place tucked into a back street. The eminent chef Marissa Iocco (Galleria Italiana, La Bettola, Bricco, Umbria, Mare) had been reported consulting there for more than a year before the announcement in April that she would take over for a grand reopening. When a name chef moves out to the suburbs, it usually looks like a retirement plan. Certainly most don't roll out their avant-garde stuff outside city limits (too bad — that means no swordfish pastrami à la Mare). And yet, just as it's fascinating to see how an experimental musician like Ran Blake takes apart an Ellington tune, there is an anticipation to taste what Iocco does with routine pastas and roast chicken.

As it turns out, she has been experimenting at the cutting edge of . . . mashed potatoes!

That's not to say Iocco has abandoned her insistence on making all breads, pastas, and desserts in house. The offerings in the first column are either flat and focaccia-like or crusty with a soft white crumb. They go right into a dip of white-bean purée, roasted garlic, and olive oil, but some should be saved for sauces.

The menu is divided into more courses than Americans are used to, with the pasta "primi" potentially doubling as appetizers for hearty eaters, or as small plates for grazers. Appetizers proper include a house pizzetta ($9). Our night it was made with crisped prosciutto and fresh ricotta cheese, so much of the former that it resembled delectable lean-bacon sandwiches. A stew of vegetables "caponata style" ($9) worked better as a side dish, since the vegetables — which will improve as the farmer's markets swing into action — weren't sufficiently stewed to make a coherent caponata. Sea scallops ($12) ran small our night, but the skewer had all the real flavor, with a sweet condiment of garlic, roasted bell peppers, and a frisee salad.

The most satisfying pick was an insalata of baby greens ($9), a pretty typical mix made extraordinary with a few candied hazelnuts, a dusting of pecorino cheese, and just the right dressing. The weak sister was flan of Parmigianino Reggiano ($12), an over-baked cheese puff with a nice salad, a kind of celery-onion pickle, and another frisee salad.

Pasta is Iocco's métier — one of her early protégés was Barbara Lynch — and the ubiquitous pappardelle with Bolognese ragu ($17) showcases it at its best. The meat sauce is as complex as sausage and the wide ribbons of pasta have the perfect balance of melt and chew. Potato gnocchi ($16), done in a brick oven, are another cliché made new. No one gets lighter dumplings, richer tomato sauce, or more excitement out of the season's first shredded basil. Lobster agnolotti ($18) were actually square ravioli our night — no harm done to the stuffing, or the thrilling sauce of tomato, béchamel, sweet tiny shrimp, micro greens, and crabmeat.

La Laiterie To truly sample the bistro’s offerings, we turned to heartier fare.

Johnnie's on the Side This large space has always housed attractive restaurants, despite violating two of Nadeau's laws: Eateth Not Within 1000 Cubits of a Government Institution; and Ditto for Sports Stadia.

Review: Chez Pascal Everything about Chez Pascal, beginning with Monday Market Menus and ending with a gallery show for a Rhody painter, emphasizes co-owners Matt and Kristin Gennuso's support for local talent, be it farmers or artists.

North 26 I never call chefs before writing a review, but if I did speak with Brian Flagg of North 26, I'd ask him if Jasper White has ever paid a visit.

South End Buttery South End Buttery started with cupcakes and coffee, but opened up a dining room below street level two summers ago, and has since gradually taken on more serious cheffery.

Restaurant Marliave The Marliave is 132 years old. It opened as a French restaurant, survived Prohibition as a speakeasy, and at some point became Italian.

BOKX 109 To get questions about the name out of the way, “bokx” is the industry term for boxed cuts of meat, and number 109 is prime rib.

Barlow’s Restaurant It’s not unusual for this column to have a different opinion of restaurants than the column in the Boston Globe — I favor a flatter bell curve.

Punjab Palace Punjab Palace — by the same owners of Kenmore Square’s India Quality — “proves to be the kind of kid brother that would make any older sibling proud,” my colleague MC Slim JB wrote last year. That’s true, but this is also another second-tier Indian restaurant. So why do Slim and I like it so much?

REVIEW: BONCHON | August 10, 2012 What am I doing in this basement in Harvard Square, reviewing the second location of a multi-national franchise chain?

REVIEW: CARMELINA'S | July 25, 2012 After a good run with "Italian tapas" under the name Damiano (a play on the given name of chef-owner Damien "Domenic" DiPaola), this space has been rechristened as Carmelina's — after the chef's mother and his first restaurant, opened when he was an undergraduate in Western Mass — and the menu reconfigured to feature more entrées.

REVIEW: TONIC | July 06, 2012 Bad restaurant idea number 16: let's do a neighborhood bar-bistro where there already is one.

REVIEW: HAPPY’S BAR AND KITCHEN | June 20, 2012 In a year of bad restaurant ideas, one of the better bets is to have a successful fancy-food chef try a downscale restaurant.